Dear Friends,
Himalayan HealthCare (HHC) has just completed its 25th anniversary trek to Nepal’s Northern Dhading region, where nearly 600 patients were treated in medical camps in Tipling and Lapa. Eight international doctors, one pharmacist and three volunteers joined our staff in Nepal and the local health providers. Their work was supported by a team of 15 porters, cooks and scores of local volunteers.
HHC has been conducting medical camps in Nepal’s remote mountain villages since 1992, providing care to populations that, due to their remoteness and the legacy of Nepal’s caste system, otherwise have no options for treatment. International health providers work with our staff and the local communities to provide training, medical care and other support to those who need it most.
In the past 25 years, HHC has treated more than 293,000 patients and supported public health, education and income-generation programs for some of Nepal’s most marginalized communities.
During our fall trek, HHC handed over completed health posts to the local government in Tipling and Lapa, with the District Health Officer and local leaders in attendance. The health posts were reconstructed as part of a collaboration between HHC and AmeriCares to repair and rebuild Dhading District’s health clinics following the 2015 earthquake that devasted the region.
HHC also handed over the first of four school buildings in Lapa, which was built with the generous support of Brother’s Brother Foundation and the Nepalese Community of Pittsburgh.
As part of our ongoing disaster relief to the region, HHC helped secure land deeds for sixteen earthquake-affected Dalit families in Northern Dhading. Without the deeds, these families were ineligible to apply for the housing reconstruction aid offered by Nepal’s National Reconstruction Authority and had been living on public land.
As we reflect on our 25 years of service to the people of Nepal, we are grateful for donors like you who make our work possible.
We thank you for your support,
Himalayan HealthCare
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Twenty-five years ago, Himalayan HealthCare came to the villages of Nepal’s Northern Dhading District to find that no vaccines had reached these remote mountain communities. The government health clinic in the village of Sertung had gone unstaffed for two years and had no medications in stock. In the village of Tipling, teachers failed to show up for classes, and school enrollment stood at a mere 15 students. There was no access to sanitation facilities or safe drinking water, and children’s heads were covered in lice.
Each year, the monsoon season claimed the lives of countless children from diarrheal diseases, measles, polio and other vaccine-preventable diseases. In 1992, the under-five mortality rate was 236 per 1,000 live births. In other words, one in four children did not live to see their 5th birthday.
Today, thanks to Himalayan HealthCare’s interventions, tens of thousands of individuals now have a chance at life and hope for a better future.
Since 1992, Himalayan HealthCare has:
Speaking to people in the villages of Tipling, Sertung and Lapa reveals just how important Himalayan HealthCare’s work has been.
A young woman named Melina, who is currently receiving a scholarship from Himalayan HealthCare, told us her story:
“I feel fortunate because I got this chance from Himalayan HealthCare. Otherwise my family wouldn’t be able to send me to school. My ambition is to take a higher level of science and become a doctor… If I cannot become a doctor, I will become a teacher. I will give health information in the villages and increase consciousness of health… I don't want other families to be sick like mine."
We are grateful for donors like you who have sustained our work over the past 25 years and hopeful that many of you, if you can, will help us to continue providing hope to people like Melina long into the future.
Every amount, no matter how small, makes a life-long difference in the lives of the people we serve.
We thank you for your continued support.
Sincerely,
Christina
For more than two years, Himalayan HealthCare has been providing earthquake relief and recovery services to the people of Nepal’s Dhading District. From initial provision of food, clean water, medicines and emergency medical care to the replacement of livestock and reconstruction of schools and health clinics, Himalayan HealthCare, with your support, has been able to serve nearly half a million individuals in villages close to the earthquake’s epicenter.
Earlier this year, we handed over a completed health post in Chhatredeurali to the District Health Officer. The health post was repaired and retrofitted as part of our ongoing collaboration with AmeriCares, under which we are repairing and reconstructing eight health clinics and the Dhading District Hospital, ensuring the structures are more resilient and built to higher standards than they were prior to the earthquake.
We’ve also secured political approvals and laid the groundwork for the other health clinics and our Lapa secondary school, supported by Brother’s Brother Foundation. Our construction teams are working quickly to install electricity and sanitation systems and get the metal roofs in place before the start of monsoon season. The road to recovery is a long one, and we plan to stay on it until the needs of our communities are fully met.
In addition to our earthquake recovery programs, Himalayan HealthCare has continued with our core health, education and income-generation programs, and we hosted our Spring 2017 medical trek to the remote mountain villages of Shertung and Lapa. Over the course of the 12-day trek, 834 patients, including 170 children under the age of five, were treated in two medical camps.
In our GlobalGiving report about the trek, we talked about a young woman named Melina, who is currently receiving a scholarship from Himalayan HealthCare. We wanted to also share her story with you:
"My parents both work in the fields. My father used to earn money from a foreign country, but now he is old. My mom makes some money from selling buffalo milk and Ghee butter. With that money, we buy our notebooks and pencils for school.
Because of poverty, everyone's health is poor. My father has a blood problem. My mother has a problem in her ovaries and my sister has a breathing problem. My younger brother cries whenever he goes to the bathroom. I am also sick. I have a skin disease.
I don't know why everyone in our family has diseases, but my parents love us all. They sold their buffalo and borrowed money and took us to different expensive hospitals. After 4 years, I am still not completely well."
Melina and her family’s home was destroyed in the earthquake, which caused such extensive damage to the villages where we work that many families are still unable to return home two years later.
With your help, we’ve been able to continue bringing much-needed medical care to these villages and equipping a new generation of health workers with the skills and education needed to ensure that their fellow villagers live healthier and happier lives.
When asked about her future plans now that she is supported by an HHC scholarship, Melina told us:
"I feel fortunate because I got this chance from Himalayan HealthCare. Otherwise my family wouldn’t be able to send me to school. My ambition is to take a higher level of science and become a doctor… If I cannot become a doctor, I will become a teacher. I will give health information in the villages and increase consciousness of health… I don't want other families to be sick like mine."
We thank you once again for your generosity and invite you to learn more about the ongoing needs in Nepal and how you can be involved by writing to christina@himalayanhealthcare.org.
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